


King's Cake

by GretchenSinister



Series: GretchenSinister's 8 Days of Blacksand [1]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: 8000 Blacksand AUs, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:53:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23235763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: For 8 Days of Blacksand, Day 1: Pitch gets a little more than he expected when he finds a solid gold figurine in his cake rather than a plastic baby.
Relationships: Pitch Black/Sanderson Mansnoozie
Series: GretchenSinister's 8 Days of Blacksand [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1670623
Kudos: 6
Collections: Blacksand Short Fics





	King's Cake

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 12/12/2014.

“I think I got the baby,” Pitch says indistinctly, holding his hand in front of his mouth to catch the figurine. “Or something. It’s heavy!”

North laughs. “Your first year back, and you will have to host next year! I hope you do not regret coming, now.”

Pitch smirks at him as he cleans the figurine with his napkin. “Not on your life. We might have the most dysfunctional Circle in the state, but I’m not going to break it this time.”

“We _were_ dysfunctional,” Ana says. She smiles across the table at Jack, who’s taking much bigger bites of his cake now that the baby’s been found. “But that was just because we were incomplete.”

Jack grins, his teeth glittering with multicolored frosting. “I really love being a part of this, you know—but I don’t think I would have liked getting kidnapped when I was four to stop the first break.”

“And I really wouldn’t have liked growing up thinking of you as a brother,” Bunny says.

“Because I’m a pain or to avoid the Westermarck effect?” Jack asks.

“Both,” says Bunny, and his smile is soft. “But really,” he turns to the others, “we’re still kind of dysfunctional. Yeah, it’s only quarter moon, but Nightlight and Katherine aren’t here. And even when they are here, we’re still an odd number.”

“Circles have worked with odd numbers before,” Ana says.

“Not like ours,” Bunny insists.

“Well, what does the baby look like?” North’s voice booms over the incipient argument.

“I—” Pitch blinks at it. He cups it carefully in the palm of his hand. “Where did we get this cake?”

“Moon’s Bakery, just like always,” Ana says.

“Are they in the habit of putting solid gold figurines in their cakes?” He holds his hand out over the middle of the table, the others standing to peer at it.

“That’s not a baby,” Jack says after a moment or two. “It looks just like a little man. And you left teeth marks in him.”

“I wasn’t expecting him,” Pitch says, oddly embarrassed.

North strokes his beard. “You know, I did think something was odd about the man who sold me the cake. I mean, much is odd in this town and for us, yes, but he reminded me of—well, he reminded me of the man who pointed Jack out to us. Though he looked very different.”

“I would hope so,” says Bunny.

“Did he feel Unbound?” Ana asks, thoughtfully twirling a strand of her bright green hair.

“No…” says North. “And he wasn’t part of a Circle. We would know that.”

“Maybe this was just meant for someone else,” Pitch says. The figurine is warm in his hand and the thought of someone else having it makes his stomach lurch with dismay.

North shrugs. “I did not sense the magic we know, but I did have a feeling. As a tradition, the King Cake has its own power. I think you should keep that, Pitch.”

“We should make sure it’s safe, first,” Bunny says. “The Circle—”

“There’s nothing Unbound about it,” Pitch says, closing his fingers over the golden figure. “And you know I would know. Now,” he stands, “if tradition has been fulfilled, I would really like to return to my home. I’m fairly sure we don’t have business, as no Unbound would have dared to take my place in the city yet.”

* * *

“You know,” Pitch says to the figurine, “most people would tell me to be suspicious of a small gold object that I suddenly feel very possessive of.”

The figure’s friendly smile doesn’t change, and Pitch sighs. He pushes his chair back from the table with a loud scrape that echoes through his nearly-empty house. It’s a Circle house, so it’s large enough to house the whole Circle if necessary, but it’s also his house, which means it hasn’t had to do so in thirteen years. Also, it had been flooded up to the second story eight or nine years ago, so it’s mostly held up by magic, now. The only concession Pitch made to reality was throwing out all the moldy furniture.

But why should he have done anything else? It wasn’t like he had a Circle partner, and at his age, he wasn’t likely to find one. If anyone had the kind of power needed to balance him—well, if they were Unbound, they were already on the Circle lists. There wasn’t anyone like that on the Circle lists. And if they hadn’t yet Chosen, that meant they were very, very young. Pitch’s lip curls.

“I don’t suppose you have any advice?” he asks the figurine. At that moment, moonlight streams in through the window, turning the figurine’s warm gold to pale electrum. And a golden, translucent figure now stands on the table.

He mouths something, but no sound comes out. He reaches for his throat in alarm, and Pitch sees him try to yell. It’s only when he starts forming some Circle hand-signs that Pitch remembers that he really ought to have tried to form a ward around this unknown entity.

He stops, though, before really beginning, as the ghostly figure makes the sign for Circle, then Unbound, and then a question.

“I…I’m Circle.”

The figure looks relieved, and nods, pointing to himself.

“You’re Circle? What Circle? Where? How?”

The figure soundlessly moves his mouth again and pulls his hair into spikes in frustration. It’s…endearing, Pitch realizes, just as he realizes that this ghost in his kitchen is the ghost of a very cute young man, rather short and round, just the sort of person Pitch would have drunkenly talked about putting in his pocket and taking home for keeps, back when he still drank.

The figure tilts his head and makes the question sign again. Pitch grimaces. He’s not Unbound anymore, he has responsibilities to his Circle and all others. He clears his throat. “Are you in distress?” he asks.

The figure rolls his eyes, gestures to his ghostly state and mouths something that Pitch is fairly sure is _no shit, Sherlock_.

“Now listen here,” Pitch begins, and the figure folds his arms. Pitch lowers the finger he had raised to shake at the figure. There really was no point in scolding him, was there? Not only was Pitch honestly trying to help, it looked like scolding would be just about as effective on this one as it would be on a cat. “Can you explain anything about how you got like this?”

The figure frowns thoughtfully. He makes the signs for body and soul, entwined as they should be. Then he rips his hands apart, sending the hand that made the soul symbol go fluttering all the way down onto the golden figurine. He grins sheepishly and makes the signs for taking, and knowledge, and vastness. Then, Chosen-Circle-no-Circle.

Pitch blinks, and blinks again. “You split your body and soul apart by accident after learning something big. This happened after you had chosen to be Circle but before your initiation?”

The figure waves his hand back and forth. More or less.

Pitch staggers into his chair, and the figure crouches before him, concerned. “Good lord,” Pitch mutters. To be so successfully magically reckless, before even fully joining a Circle, this man must have power that at least equaled his own. And if he had never been initiated, he would never have had a Circle partner. And he would have disappeared off the Circle’s watch after splitting his body and soul, because as far as they were concerned, that meant he was dead to all Circle magic. (A falsehood, Pitch knew now, but try changing millennia of lore!)

But here he was, so he wasn’t dead. He just had his soul stored in a tiny golden figurine that had ended up in Pitch’s piece of king cake. This was definitely going to get complicated. But, for now…

“Do you know where your body is?” Pitch asks faintly.

The figure shakes his head and points to Pitch.

“What? We’ve only just met…” Pitch’s cheeks flare with heat before he notices the figure’s shocked expression. “Ah…that is, of course you didn’t mean that. Possession is terrible. Look…you should know. I was Circle, then I was Unbound for thirteen years, and I’ve been Circle again for less than a year now. I might say some awful things without realizing it.”

The figure nods and climbs carefully off the table. He doesn’t look shocked anymore, only intrigued. He points to Pitch again.

“Yes, I’ll help you find your body.”

The figure shakes his head. “You don’t want me to?” The figure nods, then shakes his head, then points more emphatically at Pitch. He makes the sign for good with one hand, then the other.

“Oh…ah, I suppose it would be different if we both agreed to it. But.” Pitch feels himself blushing again. “Again, we just met.”

The figure points from himself to Pitch and back again and makes the signs for taking knowledge.

“Well…yes. We can start getting to know each other better now.”

The figure grins. He points to Pitch, taps the side of his head, raises his hand high, points to Pitch again, then his own eyes, hesitates for a moment, then sort of circles his face with his hand. Pitch isn’t familiar with the last sign, which might be an actual word, but he thinks he can puzzle out what the figure’s saying by the motions combined with the words he mouths.

_You’re smarter than you look, handsome._

It’s the first time Pitch has tried to scowl and smile at the same time, and he hopes with all his heart that it won’t be the last.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> tejoxys said: Was that the asl sign for ‘beautiful’? And I’m with bowlingforgerbils, this au is intriguing.
> 
> bowlingforgerbils said: I have no idea what’s going on but I like it! Please write more someday! :)


End file.
